Nanotechnology

I appreciate the opportunity today to present my views on nanotechnology. There is a growing sense in the scientific and technical community that we are about to enter a golden new era. We are about to be able to build things that work on the smallest possible length scales, atom by atom with the ultimate level of finesse. These little nanothings, and the technology that assembles and manipulates them -- nanotechnology -- will revolutionize our industries, and our lives.

Everything we see around us is made of atoms, the tiny elemental building blocks of matter. From stone, to copper, to bronze, iron, steel, and now silicon, the major technological ages of humankind have been defined by what these atoms can do in huge aggregates, trillions upon trillions of atoms at a time, molded, shaped, and refined as macroscopic objects. Even in our vaunted microelectronics of 1999, in our highest-tech silicon computer chip the smallest feature is a mountain compared to the size of a single atom. The resultant technology of our 20th century is fantastic, but it pales when compared to what will be possible when we learn to build things at the ultimate level of control, one atom at a time.

Nature has played the game at this level for billions of years, building stuff with atomic precision. Every living thing is made of cells that are chock full of nanomachines -